


To hear what you don’t say

by BenettClaire



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Bisexual Remus Lupin, Fluff, Gay Sirius Black, Jealousy, M/M, Marauders Era (Harry Potter), Pining, Sirius Black Fest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-19
Updated: 2019-11-19
Packaged: 2021-01-04 18:14:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,027
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21201947
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BenettClaire/pseuds/BenettClaire
Summary: Sirius had a girlfriend. A girlfriend. He still couldn’t believe it, much less explain how the whole mess had happened.





	To hear what you don’t say

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Abed for this wonderful prompt. I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it, and I hope I did it justice. 
> 
> Special mention to my betas too, who patiently endured my horrible punctuation and dubious wording.

Sirius had a girlfriend. A girlfriend. He still couldn’t believe it, much less explain how the whole mess had happened. 

It all went back a few weeks ago, he supposed, when Remus had started dating her first. The girl in question was a nice Slytherin from the year below —leave it to Remus to find the only decent person in that pit of venomous snakes, of course— but none of that mattered to Sirius when he found out.

“Moony, just in time!” James grinned towards the portrait hole.

Sirius snapped his head up from the table, almost knocking down the rather impressive card castle they had been building for the last half an hour with Peter’s new deck. 

“To see you break the record of singed eyebrows in one go?” Remus eyed the cards warily as he approached. Some of them quivered and fumed. “Yeah, it seems likely. I should have taken longer to come back.”

If, over time, fellow Gryffindors had learnt to keep a safe distance from the Marauders, the perimeter only widened at Remus’ words. 

“Where were you anyway?” asked Peter.

Remus sat in the vacant armchair in front of Sirius, looking very focused all of a sudden on taking books out of his bag.

“With Charlie,” he said casually, which may have worked if not for the fact that he was putting his homework in imminent danger for when the castle inevitably collapsed.

Sirius leant forward on his seat. “Who is Charlie?” 

“Charlotte Goldstein. She volunteered to help Hagrid with the mooncalves too.”

In another of Hagrid's several endeavours in keeping all sorts of magical creatures, he had somehow acquired a herd of mooncalves; a kind of peculiar, sheep-like creatures that fancied going out in the moonlight and leaving strange marks that confused muggles.

James frowned as he placed another card. “Isn’t she in Slytherin?” 

“In sixth year, yes.”

“But I saw Hagrid earlier in the great hall,” Peter objected. “He was blabbering about going to help Filch with something. Didn’t seem too pleased about it .”

“Yeah, apparently someone let loose a bunch of Murtlaps on the charms corridor and they made nests inside the suits of armour. I think he was going to stop Filch from beating them with his broom, though, rather than helping him.”

When it was clear Remus wasn’t planning to continue, Sirius pressed.

“And what were you two doing?”

“We just went for a walk.”

“Like a date?”

“I don’t know if you’d consider it a date, Prongs. You deem unworthy anything that doesn’t involve awful poetry, rose petals or fireworks of some kind.”

“Hey! My poetry isn’t awful!”

“For the love of Merlin-” Sirius shot up from his seat in frustration, ready to shake the truth out of Remus if he had to, but the abrupt movement was the final blow to the already wobbly castle. The cards came tumbling down in a series of deafening explosions, the final bang strong enough to knock them all to the floor.

When the smoke cleared, the four of them were left sitting amongst what was left of the table and armchairs, the common room deadly quiet around them. Peter coughed.

“Yeah,” Remus croaked weakly. “We are dating.”

The next few weeks were rough for Sirius.

First, they started to see less and less of Remus. Sirius complained to James and Peter, loudly and frequently, but it was to no avail as they either accused him of exaggerating or straight up ignored him.

“Where’s Remus?”

His friends glanced up and then down immediately to the mess of books and parchment strewn between them on the bed. Sirius didn’t need more of an answer.

“Again?! Does he even live here anymore?!”

“C’mon, Padfoot,” James carded a hand through his hair in frustration. “He doesn’t hang out with her that much.”

Peter snickered. “You’re just jealous Moony’s got himself a girl and you haven’t.”

Sirius took out his wand in a flash and shot a well aimed Horn-Tongue hex at him, enjoying how Peter’s laugh turned into cries of alarm as his tongue elongated and hardened until it was almost too big for his mouth. It looked like he’d tried to swallow a rhino backwards.

“Can’t I leave you three alone for five minutes?"

He turned sharply to see Remus leaning against the doorframe, a small, amused smile on his face.

“Apparently, you can,” Sirius sneered. “Came to pack your things?” he said as he made for the stairs, knocking Remus’ shoulder hard on his way out.

Then, it got worse. She started to drop by their table at dinner, lunch and sometimes breakfast —Sirius appetite suffered greatly from it— whether it was just to say hi or to stay chatting for a while. She joined them between classes when they went for a stroll in the courtyard, and on the first visit to Hogsmeade, Remus brought her along. 

Sirius was currently lamenting this fact as they waited for Peter in the cold, who had to run back all the way to the Three Broomsticks to retrieve his forgotten jumper.

“Why is it so bloody cold?” He growled into the collar of his leather jacket. “It’s barely November!”

“Maybe if you brought some proper winter clothing,” murmured Remus, eyeing said jacket with disdain.

“Leave it, Moony.” James threw an arm around his shoulder. “You and I both know it’s a lost cause. He’d rather freeze his arse off than refrain from parade it around as much as possible, the vain git.”

“Like you froze your brains you mean?” Sirius retorted.

“To be fair, it is a really good jacket.”

He turned to look at Charlie, who was staring right back at him with an odd expression. She did that a lot, he noticed. Sirius would be doing something or another, actively trying to ignore her as best as he could, but then she would catch his eye and all the anguish and rage would burn through him. 

Right now, he kept stewing about how, if it wasn’t for her, they could’ve taken one of the secret passages back. It was by no means unusual for any of them to do so on really cold days, or when they were tired and didn’t feel like walking back to the castle, or just for the thrill of it, even during approved visits. But Charlie couldn’t know about any of that. 

Sirius began kicking a pile of dirty snow that had lingered from the night before in a futile attempt to warm himself. Was he supposed to risk the loss of several limbs because of some stupid witch, and be happy about it too? As if stealing his friend wasn’t bad enough. What did Remus even see in her? She wasn’t that pretty. He could do better. 

The snow was mostly a puddle when an unexpected hot blast hit him and he tripped into it. 

“What the hell was that?!” Sirius spun around in time to see Remus hiding his wand. 

“Warming Charm,” he said coolly. “OWLS stuff. Pretty simple, actually.”

Sirius stood rooted to the spot, glaring furiously at him. He felt the anger dissipate as soon as it had come, though.

Remus’ face was barely visible between the thick Gryffindor scarf around his neck and the knitted hat that pushed his curls forward, but his nose and cheeks were bright red from the cold. He was hiding a smile, too. 

It had started to snow again at some point, just a few stray flakes that all seemed to catch on Remus’ hair and his eyelashes, glittering with the fading golden sunlight as they melted. 

Sirius blinked a few times before looking away. 

“You lot go ahead,” he grunted as he turned his back to them. “I’ll go fetch Peter.”

And with that, he fled towards the village.

It got to a point where he barely tolerated Remus’ presence anymore. 

Although Sirius had told himself that he’d never try anything, his friend’s previous disinterest in girls and dating in general had given him a false sense of security, and also a little, tiny, dangerous ray of hope. And now it had all been crushed.

Remus, for his part, kept trying to reach him over and over again, and getting that hurt look every time Sirius lashed out that only made him feel worse and shot his temper up even more.

He was warming his soaked feet by the common room fire after a particularly vicious snowball fight with James and the rest of the quidditch team when he heard footsteps behind him.

“As soon as I saw the mud track I knew you’d be at the end of it. Padfoot never really goes away, does he?”

“Be careful, then. He might bite you.” He would’ve almost sounded like himself if he hadn’t said it so dryly.

Remus played dumb and sat next to him on the sofa. “Nah, he wouldn’t, I know he’s a good dog deep down.”

Sirius didn’t respond, staring fixedly into the flames.

“Fancy a game of chess?”

“I don’t know. Wouldn’t you rather play with Charlie?” He spat her name with such loathing that it rivalled Snivellus.

“Actually,” Remus said softly, “I broke up with her.”

He snapped his head up from the fireplace. “Why? You seemed to...like her.”

“I did, and we got along well enough, but it wasn’t that serious.” He stopped for a moment before laughing nervously. “Or maybe it was, since you were the main reason we called it off.”

Sirius’ heart skipped a beat. “Me?”

“Yeah. You went mad every time I so much as mentioned her, nevermind when you saw us together. And I think I know why.”

He felt a distant urge to run, to escape, but found he couldn’t move. He couldn’t even breathe. He was so overwhelmed that he watched Remus' lips move for a few moments without registering what he was saying.

“You like her.”

“What!?” He jolted immediately. “No!”

“Listen Padfoot, I think she likes you too.”

“What are you talking about?”

“She paid a lot of attention to you. Maybe not at first, but then she kept mentioning you and well,” Remus gestured with his hands, and Sirius was absently reminded of the way he spoke to the kids he tutored. “It was pretty logical, isn’t it? I kind of expected it.”

“Why would you say that?”

He dropped his head, but then lifted it again with a bittersweet smile that left Sirius speechless. “Because you're you, Sirius, and I know I could never keep up.”

“Oh, Remus.”

“I don’t mind, really,” he rushed, a faint blush covering his cheeks. “You were so upset, I had never seen you like that for a girl before. You must really care about her.”

Sirius was about to deny everything, but his friend’s next words muted him. 

“Why else would you act like that?”

And he knew he had no answer to that question. Not without exposing the truth, without the risk of losing what he valued most. So he stayed silent.

Remus, as expected, took that as a confirmation and spent the next two days insisting he talk to Charlie. Sirius avoided him as best as he could, making up one excuse after another. He hadn’t counted on the girl herself, though, who caught him on his way back from the owlery when he went to send his and James’ letters to the Potters.

“Hi Sirius”

“Um, hi.”

“Getting ahead with the Christmas presents?” she asked conversationally. “I’m sending one myself —a remembrall— for my mum. She’s a muggle, so she finds those kinds of little magic knick-knacks dead useful.”

“Actually, I was writing to the Potters to say James and I won’t be coming back for the holidays.” He stopped for a moment before he caught onto something. “Wait,” he said before he could stop himself, “your mother’s a muggle? But you’re in Slytherin!”

“Yes.”

“But I thought—”

“I know.”

Sirius stood perplexed and the silence stretched between them for a few moments. Charlie stared intently at him.

“You staying here then?” she continued before he could make a quick exit, and then, without waiting for an answer, “Remus is too. He told me before we broke up.”

His mind shot directly to their conversation two days prior and he began to feel more uncomfortable by the second.

“I’m sorry.”

“You’re not.” She snorted, but then shook her head and let out a profound sigh. “Remus was convinced the reason you were being so awful to me was because you were jealous. And you didn't tell him otherwise.”

“No,” he admitted.

Charlie gestured for him to continue. “So?”

Suddenly, Sirius understood. Remus had been right about a few things after all. 

“Look, you must be expecting me to ask you out, but I can’t.” 

Charlie let out an incredulous sound, but Sirius didn’t falter. Rejecting girls was a topic he was familiar with at last. “Remus is my friend and I don’t want to hurt him.”

He expected her to be upset, to throw a tantrum even, but she got a determined glint in her eyes instead. It was a bit intimidating, to be honest.

“I didn’t want to come to this,” she started gravely, “but you give me no choice.” A pause. “You just admitted you were jealous and Remus is alright with it. He told you himself. Why else wouldn’t you want to?”

‘Why else would you act like that?’ Remus’ words echoed in his head. And just like then, he knew he had no answer.

“I thought so,” she said smugly after a few seconds.

Sirius remained stupefied as she leaned in, pressed a kiss to his cheek and took the path to the owlery again. 

“See you tomorrow. Eight o’clock, at the entrance hall.” She added over her shoulder.

And that was, in short, the story of why Sirius had now a girlfriend. It must’ve made a good story, though, because within a week, it had become Hogwarts’ juiciest gossip since Greta Grimblehawk’s secret diary leakings, allegedly at the hands of her very best friend.

He put it all down to the fact that, despite being one of the most sought-after boys in the school, Charlie was the first girl that had managed to catch his attention for more than two days in a row— or so everybody thought— and according to popular opinion, they were as good as married already. Plus, her previous fling with Remus, that hadn’t attracted nearly as much attention until that very moment, provided a fantastic source for crazy theories about love triangles and tragically wrecked friendships.

But other than that, Sirius had to admit it wasn’t that bad. Charlie took a lot less of his time than he’d initially expected, and when they were together, kept the physical affection to a minimum too. Sometimes he got the fleeting suspicion that maybe she still had feelings for Remus, since his name seemed to pop up in conversation more often than not, but he didn’t really care. It turned out he genuinely enjoyed her company when he wasn’t so busy hating her.

It was Remus himself who was troubling Sirius’ mind. More than usual, that is. For all he had insisted in their relationship at first, he was growing more and more withdrawn as time passed, in that way he did when he was both very upset and very determined not to show it. Sirius, for his part, was growing desperate. After everything he’d done just to keep Remus’ friendship, he was terrified of losing it for a relationship he didn’t even want. 

The strained atmosphere bled into the late November full moon as well. Nothing too dangerous had happened, but Moony had been far more restless than usual and Remus had to spend a whole day in the hospital wing before Madam Pomfrey released him. 

He appeared back into the dorms well past dinner time on Saturday night, finding his friends still wide awake after sleeping through the day. 

“Lucky this one fell on a Friday,” Peter commented. “I hate going to class after the full. Last time I fell asleep in Divination and dipped my nose into the teacup.”

James made a noncommittal sound, arms behind his head as he lay sprawled on the floor, but then his brow furrowed in thought and he sat up a bit to look at Sirius.

“By the way, what did you tell Charlie? It must’ve been good, or else she’s going to be right pissed you ignored her the whole weekend.”

He merely shrugged. “I didn’t really tell her anything”

“But you haven’t so much as acknowledged her existence in two days!”

“Yeah,” Peter rushed to agree with James. “Aren’t girls supposed to be all clingy?”

Remus huffed and rolled his eyes. “Not all girls are absolute limpets, you dolts.”

“You would know, wouldn’t you, Moony?” James pressed. “What did you tell her on the full? Because maybe a day or two is not much, but you must have needed at least three.”

“Not much either, just that I wasn’t feeling well”

“And she went with it?”

A rather unconvincing nod was his only response. The silence stretched and Remus, with three pairs of eyes on him, started fidgeting in his seat. After a few moments, he dropped his head with a resigned sigh.

“She knows.”

A loud chorus of incredulous cries broke in the room.

“What?! You told her?!”

Remus lifted his hands in surrender. “No! No, she guessed it herself.”

“How?!” James seemed outraged. “It took us a year and a half to find out, and you were with her little more than two months!”

“She promised to keep my secret, so I’ll keep hers,” he replied solemnly.

Sirius placed himself in front of Remus, grabbed his shoulders and crouched so they were face to face.

“I solemnly swear, if I have to drag another secret from you…”

Remus stared at him with his bright, hazel eyes open wide in surprise. He held his gaze for what felt like hours, both of them holding their breath, until his friend finally crumbled and looked away.

“She’s a natural legilimens,” he said quietly. “Apparently it runs in her family, but she doesn’t want anyone to know.”

Sirius stayed put for a few more seconds before he shot up abruptly and started searching the room. 

“Padfoot, what are you doing?”

He ignored his friends as he grabbed the map.

“Sirius, no, wait!” Remus called after him, but he was already halfway down the stairs.

He found Charlie in the dungeons, on her way to the Slytherin common with some friends. As soon as she saw him, however, she waved them away and walked towards him. She didn’t seem surprised at all.

“You know, then.”

“Yeah, I do,” he snapped. “Would you care to explain, for those of us poor idiots that can’t read minds?”

Her eyes darted around quickly before nodding. “Not here, though.”

They went into the closest empty classroom, and Charlie locked the door behind them. She barely had time to add a silencing charm too before Sirius turned on her.

“Were you planning on telling me? Bet you weren't. It must’ve been too fun to keep laughing at me to my own face,” he spat viciously. “What exactly have you found out about me?” A note of panic filtered into his voice at the last question.

“Sirius—“

“Is that what you do? Get into people’s heads without permission to gather all of their secrets?”

“It’s not like I can always help it!” she cried defensively, but Sirius wasn’t listening as he continued his rant.

“It must be dead useful for a lot of dirty little tricks. Do you blackmail them after? I swear if you try anything on Remus-“

“Shut up!” She pointed her wand at him. “You said you wanted me to explain. Are you gonna let me or not?!”

He scowled but backed down against the nearest desk. 

Charlie lowered her wand and took a calming breath.

“You remember how you were surprised I'm a half-blood even though I'm in Slytherin?”

Sirius gave a tight nod.

“Well, my father’s family is pureblood. Not quite like the Blacks, of course, they don’t mind muggles so much as long as they’re not in the family. That’s why they weren’t too pleased when my father went and knocked up one.”

“They mostly ignored my mother and me until I started showing signs of magic, especially a certain talent in knowing what people around me were thinking. Legilimency is a skill that can be trained, but it has popped in and out of the Goldstein family tree as a natural gift for generations, and when they learned I had it, then they were all about introducing me into the wizarding world and hiring tutors to help me develop it.”

In spite of himself, Sirius felt his anger dissipating.

“Usually, people have to concentrate really hard to do it, navigating another mind is not easy in any way, but sometimes I do it involuntarily. It can be a real bother in crowded places, or when someone is thinking really loud.” She leveled him with an accusatory look. “You’re practically shouting all the time, you know.” 

“So you didn’t do it on purpose?”

“Not at first. But you were cursing me in your head every time I tagged along, and I wanted to know why you hated me so much. I won’t deny I use my powers for my own benefit too, but just for little things here and there, and I’m always very discreet about what I find one way or another.”

“And what did you find out?” he asked for the second time, already knowing the answer.

Charlie let out a little laugh. “That you didn’t fancy me, for sure.”

Sirius’ stomach dropped. “I don’t understand. Why were you so intent on dating me then?”

“That day at the owlery,” she started patiently. “I didn’t want you to ask me out, you moron, I was trying to get you to confess!”

“What? Why?”

“So I could convince you to tell Remus, obviously. But you weren’t cooperating, and I decided to stick around and give you a little push.”

He took a long moment to take it all in.

“It’s all useless, anyways,” he said finally. “I’m not telling him.”

“Sirius, he likes you too.”

“What?!” He repeated. “How do you-“ 

But he cut himself when Charlie shot him a look that said ‘Are you really gonna ask me that?’

“I wouldn’t even have needed to read his mind. I didn’t, at first. He talked a lot about you, for sure, but I didn’t make too much of it until you started acting up. I tried to figure out where he stood on the matter, and Merlin,” she said exasperated. “If I thought he talks a lot about you, it's nothing compared to how much he thinks about you. He definitely fancies you. He just doesn’t know it yet.”

Sirius’ insides were in uproar, but he didn’t dare believe what he was hearing.

“If he truly —how could he not know? It’s impossible.”

“You tell me. You know him better than I do.”

He shook his head stubbornly. “You must be wrong. Why would he be so adamant about you and me dating then?”

“Because he is an oblivious git.” Charlie seemed a lot less patient as the conversation progressed. “He noticed you were jealous, I’ll give him that, but I would like to see anyone try and put through his thick little head that you, the great Sirius Black, wanted him. I did, and you know what I got for my trouble?”

He blinked owlishly at her.

“Him thinking that I fancied you because I talked a lot about you. What a bloody hypocrite. So, he concluded that we were both too much for him, paired us up, and set himself to play martyr.”

That sounded a lot like Remus, to be fair.

“I decided to give up on him and see if I could get you to do something about it. But you’re not much better off, you know.” She frowned at him.

Sirius shifted uneasily on his feet. “And what do you expect me to do, go straight to him and drop it, just like that?”

“Yes!” She exclaimed. “Well, without the straight part, I should think.” 

He scowled at her.

“I can’t do that!” 

“You can, and you will,” she said shortly. “You said something about blackmail earlier. Don’t go giving me any ideas, Black, because you were right. I’m not above them. Not anymore.”

He panicked a little and it must’ve shown on his face —or not, he mused— because Charlie’s face softened.

“Sirius, you are a good person,” she said gently. “You deserve to be happy. Both of you do.”

She smiled at him and, much like that first day on the owlery, leaned in to kiss his cheek sweetly. He watched her remove the locking and silencing charms and before she disappeared down the corridor, she turned on the doorframe one last time. 

“Go talk to him. And remember, I’ll know if you don’t.”

It was only when Sirius arrived back at Gryffindor tower and found the common room dark and empty, on a Saturday night, that he truly realized how late it was. He was lucky he hadn’t been caught.

He tiptoed into the dorm, grateful to find his friends were already asleep. Explanations could wait until tomorrow. However, halfway into the room his foot caught onto something. He didn’t fall, but his struggle was loud enough to wake the whole castle. A light went on behind Remus’ hangings.

“Sirius?”

Cursing himself inwardly, he turned to see his friend’s head popping up from the curtains, his eyes squinting at his lit wand.

“Sorry, Moony, didn’t mean to wake you.”

“I wasn’t sleeping. Where were you?”

He hesitated a bit. “With Charlie.”

Remus was quiet for what felt like an eternity, in which Sirius’ pulse started to quicken.

“Did you two have a row?” He whispered at last.

“Kind of. I —We broke up, I think.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry, Padfoot,” he sounded terribly guilty. “I didn’t mean to-“

“No, no,” Sirius waved him off. “Don’t worry. It’s alright.”

He hovered uncertain then, Charlie’s words resonating in his head over and over. It was very unlikely that he would have a better occasion, he reasoned, and if he didn’t do it now, who knew if he would ever have the guts. Sirius made up his mind. He took a deep breath, gathering every inch of courage he possessed.

“Remus, can I talk to you for a moment?”

He looked a bit confused, but nodded. “Sure, Pads.”

Sirius walked over to the bed, took off his shoes, and climbed in. He made sure the curtains were closed, and cast a silencing charm around them. It was only when he ran out of distractions that he dared to look up at Remus.

They were sitting in front of each other with their legs crossed, their combined weight sinking the mattress just enough to bring their knees together. Remus stared expectantly at him.

“Ahem.” He cleared his throat, which suddenly felt very tight. He realized he didn’t know where to start, so he cleared it again.

“Are you okay?”

“Splendid.” He supplied as his brain scrambled for something else to say. “Charlie told me some things, earlier.”

It definitely wasn’t his wittiest moment, but he could work with it. 

“I take it she explained the whole Legilimens thing.”

Sirius nodded, and Remus winced a bit.

“Was she very angry with me for slipping up?

“No, she wasn’t. I think she was expecting it.” 

“Really?”

“Yeah. I’m not angry at her, either. Not anymore.”

Remus’ brow furrowed. “Why did you break up then?”

“She knew I didn’t fancy her,” he said flatly. 

“What? But you seemed content with her, not to mention how miserable you were before that. You said you were jealous.”

McGonagall would probably start singing to the heavens if Sirius paid to her classes half the attention he was paying to his lap right now.

“I was.”

Sirius’ heart was pounding almost painfully into his ribcage by this point. His insides were twisting unpleasantly, and he felt ready to throw up. Or to pass out. Or both. 

Remus eyed him carefully.

“I don’t think I underst-“

The rest of the sentence was muffled by Sirius’ lips.

It lasted only a second, and when he pulled back Remus was gaping at him like a fish out of water.

He dropped his head immediately, and was grateful when his hair hid most of his face. His cheeks were burning. 

“Padfoot.” The nickname sounded so terribly endearing that it almost killed him. “Why did you do that?”

“It was you,” Sirius whined pathetically. “It was you from the start. I only dated Charlie because I was scared you’d find out if I didn’t.” 

When the silence stretched out, he kept rambling.

“I didn’t want to lose you, even if your friendship was the only thing I was ever going to get.” 

Remus’ hand was resting on his knee, and Sirius, almost unconsciously, moved his own forward until their fingertips were brushing. 

“But tonight, she said some things about you too, and I was hoping…” 

He trailed off. Remus hadn’t moved his hand away yet. 

“I still envy her, you know,” said Sirius as he slid his fingers up, so, so very slowly, and then around until he was holding Remus’ hand entirely. He brought it into his lap, where his other hand joined to play idly with the scraped knuckles. “I’d give anything to hear what you don’t say.”

He looked up when he felt a hot breath ghost over his cheek, startled at how close Remus’ face was. Sirius’ gaze traveled down from his eyes, to each and every one of his freckles, to his lips, which were shiny and slightly parted. 

They were kissing before he realized. Properly, this time, mouths tentative but open. And then they kissed again. And again. And a long time after that.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!
> 
> This came out a bit different than I expected due mostly to lack of time on my part, but all in all I’m happy with it.
> 
> I regret not including a bit more about James, though. I guess Peter too.
> 
> Anyways, I sincerely hope you enjoyed it, and of course, feel free to leave as many kudos and comments as you want!


End file.
